© Tiram Group
Backed by decades of genetic development and promising commercial trials, Tiran Group’s Galil M tilapia line will soon be ready to be delivered to farmers in Southeast Asia and beyond – offering hope not only for dramatically expanding the production of the world’s second most popular genus of farmed fish, but also of helping alleviate disease issues in the shrimp industry.
Based, in Israel, Tiran’s first international aquaculture venture took them to China in 2002, when Haim Avioz, the group’s CEO and owner, was invited to invest in an Israeli-run shrimp farming project. However, following viral challenges, they decided to pivot to tilapia.
Under Avioz’s leadership Tiran went on to built partnerships in Guangdong, offering farmers free fingerlings with a buyback guarantee – a model that ensured consistent supply to European buyers. But seasonal limits and the difficulty of scaling their own production in China led them to start investing in breeding programmes, working closely with Tilapia Solutions Nir David (TSND), before acquiring all their lines outright in 2023, including the salt-tolerant Galil M.
According to Yoav Lahav, who works as a consultant for the company, this line stands out for its exceptional tolerance to high salinity levels.
“The black line was developed specifically to grow in seawater,” explains Lahav. “It can withstand up to 40, maybe even 45, ppt… which is comparable to the levels in the Red Sea.”
This line has been developed over decades by Lahav’s father, Eran, a pioneer who has bred tilapia for more than 50 years and is still – despite approaching the age of 90 – involved in the sector.
“He saw over 30 years ago that ponds of shrimp got viruses and couldn’t be grown,” the younger Lahav explains. “He understood if he had a line of tilapia that grows in marine water, it can have a huge potential.”
Some advantages of marine tilapia
Marine tilapia don’t just open new markets – they could also address some of aquaculture’s oldest challenges.
First, they do not need marine ingredients in their diets, so could help to reduce pressure on wild fish stocks.
Secondly, they can, according to Ofer Berzak – a veteran aquaculture operator, who works with Tiran on a consultancy basis – be farmed at much higher densities than other popular marine finfish species.
“Production per cubic metre per year with marine tilapia is between 50 to 80 kg, compared with sea bream at about 15 to 20 kg,” he points out.
Another advantage is their superior taste and texture, while production in the sea means that they won’t run the risk of being exposed to the bacteria that can cause off-flavour in fish raised in freshwater farms.
“They have much better taste than freshwater tilapia… the texture of the meat is more like a marine fish,” Berzak notes.
Meanwhile, an environmental advantage is that any tilapia that escape from marine farms are unlikely to be able to breed – meaning that they pose less of a risk to biodiversity compared to their conventional, freshwater cousins.
Keeping shrimp disease at bay
One of the more intriguing applications for salt-tolerant tilapia is the potential to stock them in shrimp farms. According to Berzak, by stocking low densities of these tilapia alongside shrimp –farmers can improve the water quality and reduce outbreaks of shrimp disease, which is currently a huge issue in Southeast Asia, in particular.
It’s an approach that Berzak first helped to pioneer in Ecuador.
“Thirty years ago, I arrived in Ecuador where they had big problems with white spot. Polyculture of vannamei with tilapia meant they grew together without disease,” he reflects.
And, more recently, Tiran mirrored this success with trials in Indonesia, which resulted in an order for 300,000 red tilapia fingerlings - another of Tiran's lines, which is able to tolerate salinity levels of 25-30 ppt.
Preparing for commercial launch
Tiran currently operates three tilapia hatcheries in Asia. One of these is in Can Tho, Vietnam, where they are using 10 ponds of about 5-8,000 m2 each, two greenhouses and two indoor facilities.
Their second Vietnamese unit is in An Giang, where they rent 15 ponds of about 5-10,000 m2 each, three greenhouses and indoor facilities from An Giang breeding centre.
Meanwhile, they also produce tilapia in Gangmei village, in the Chinese province of Guangdong, where they rent 16 ponds, covering a total of 150,000 m2, four greenhouses and indoor facilities, from the local authorities.
As word for their marine tilapia spreads, they are fielding more enquiries from farmers in Asia and beyond.
“In Vietnam, they want to raise it in the Mekong Delta [where saltwater intrusion is making it harder to grow traditional lines]… We have demand from Singapore to do [farm it] in sea cages… and very big demand from Hainan in China,” says Avioz.
Tiran shipped the first batch of marine tilapia fingerlings to Vietnam this year, but it’s still slightly too early to assess their performance.
“Over the last month, we sold the fish to one company growing it saltwater,” Lahav explains. “Results have been very good [so far], and now they [will] take more fish.”
Meanwhile interest extends well beyond Southeast Asia:
“I have a lot of contacts in the Red Sea, Africa and South America… people want to check it, to make pilot [farms]… now we are ready to begin,” adds Berzak.
Despite approaching the age of 90 he is still involved in the sector
Scaling up
Now that Tiran’s marine tilapia broodstock in Vietnam has matured, Lahav explains that it will be possible to start dramatically ramping up production of their saltwater-tolerant line – with scope to expand to use all 50 ponds in the Can Tho site if the demand is strong enough.
“This year we don’t have a lot of big broodstock, so we can only produce a few hundred thousand [fingerlings] per month,” he says. “But next year… maybe between 1 to 3 million per month. And, if things go well, the year after we can do 30 million.”
According to Avioz, Vietnam offers ideal conditions to achieve this – a combination of experienced hatchery staff, strong government support and the right climate for year-round breeding.
Moreover, the company is exploring partnerships with large Vietnamese firms like Navico, as well as the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), which is aiming to encourage the city state’s ornamental fish producers to move into producing species, such as tilapia, to help them improve their food security.
As a result, they are planning to build a hatchery in Singapore to fulfil this demand, according to Avioz.
And they are also looking to set up another in Hainan, due to the demand from sea cage farmers there.
Despite huge potential, scaling marine tilapia isn’t without obstacles.
As Lahav admits, tilapia growth rates in high-salinity water tend to be slower than in freshwater; broodstock logistics across borders, especially into China, have caused delays; and past attempts by other producers to grow tilapia in the sea have been littered with failure, often due to disease or poor adaptation.
Yet the Tiran team remains optimistic – especially Berzak, who believes that saltwater tilapia production could even match the 6–7 million tonnes of tilapia currently produced in freshwater within a decade.
While such a dramatic increase would likely be beyond the scope of one genetics provider, the development of at least one effective strain of saltwater-tolerant tilapia could breathe new life into Southeast Asia’s struggling shrimp farms and bring fresh potential to sea cage farming around the tropics.
“We are ready,” Berzak concludes.
